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Expat wanderer

Doha Museum of Islamic Art Wins Coveted Award

What I love the most about this award is that it takes into account the usage of local materials. It’s also something I love about The Pearl development; all those buildings and villas built on the rubble carted away from earlier demolition projects and turned into reclaimed land. 🙂 Re-cycling to the max!

Museum of Islamic Art bags architecture award
Web posted at: 10/6/2009 1:19:1
Source ::: The PENINSULA

Dubai: Museum of Islamic Art in Doha was awarded “Overall Project of the Year” at the 2nd Annual Middle East Architect Awards.

Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) was presented with the award, for the Museum of Islamic Art – Doha, at a ceremony hosted by the Middle East Architect magazine.

The annual ceremony is the most prestigious event dedicated to recognise outstanding architectural projects in the region.

The Museum of Islamic Art was chosen for its traditional design principles that use indigenous materials and processes and integrates them with contemporary technology to create familiar, functional and environmentally sustainable architecture.

Accepting the award on behalf of QMA, Omar Chaikhouni, Manager of Public Relations and Information said: “We are delighted and honoured to be recognised as the top overall project in 2009 among all the nominees from the region. The Middle East Architect awards ceremony is a great initiative and we wish it all the success in years to come.”

Organised by ITP Business Publishing, the lavish awards ceremony took place at the Westin Dubai with the presence of more than 200 leading professionals from the region’s architecture industry, including architects, developers, service providers, contractors and building owners.

The 2nd Annual Middle East Architect Awards set out to raise the profile of the industry and reward and recognise those that have made significant contributions to its development.

Ten awards were presented at the ceremony in categories that covered a number of fields, from infrastructure project of the year to mixed-use development of the year, and from engineering firm of the year to architect of the year.

The winners were judged by a panel of experts, which consisted of industry-leading academics, architects and engineers from around the Middle East.

October 6, 2009 Posted by | Arts & Handicrafts, Beauty, Building, Character, Community, Cultural, Doha, News, Public Art, Qatar | 3 Comments

Role Reversal?

“Oh AdventureMan, I was SO embarrased!”

I had just finished telling him how while doing a major grocery shopping, I got to the front of the check-out line and realized – I had the wrong basket! How could that be? Where had I picked up this basket?

I headed quickly back to the dairy area where I had desperately been looking for sour cream; the shelves empty and looking like Florida-when-a-hurricane-is-on-the-way. A very nice gentleman said “I think you have my basket” and I apologized profusely. He was very kind. He said “Your basket is over there,” and pointed, and he was exactly right, there it was.

AdventureMan laughed and said “You have really gone to extreme lengths to meet new men! Maybe I need to keep a better eye on you!”

I agreed.

“In fact,” I said, “We could go the whole route, and I could just stay secluded in our home, and at the end of your very long working day, after driving through the grid-locked-going-home-traffic in Doha, you could stop by the aisle-packed grocery store and do a major shopping for me!”

We both laughed. Isn’t going to happen.

October 5, 2009 Posted by | Civility, Community, Doha, ExPat Life, Family Issues, Humor, Living Conditions, Qatar, Shopping, Women's Issues | 6 Comments

First Day of School

School is just starting up today in Qatar. Many parents are sending their children only reluctantly; they are afraid of the H1N1 flu. School was already delayed long past its normal opening by Ramadan and the Eid al Adha, but now there are no more excuses.

AdventureMan has called twice, stuck in traffic. What is normally a 45 minute commute to work has gone well over an hour, stuck in the gridlock of bumper to bumper traffic, parents taking children to schools. Although some of the schools have buses, many parents still have to take their children to school, or they have their drivers take the kids to school, or they pay a taxi to take them every day.

This town needs a monorail, a good, well maintained public transportation system that can whiz us all over town and is air-conditioned. It is going to have to be fast and attractive to entice people out of their cars.

Update from today’s Peninsula:

Call for delaying school reopening
Web posted at: 10/4/2009 0:52:57
Source ::: The Peninsula

DOHA: A vast majority (78 percent) of respondents to a survey conducted by Al Sharq on the schools reopening today say they favour the move to be further put off for a week. Only 20 percent of the interviewees said they saw no need for any further delay in re-opening the schools, while two percent said they were undecided.

The daily referred the findings to educationists and some of them also agreed the schools should have been given more time to prepare themselves to deal effectively with a possible spread of swine flu.

A delay in school reopening by another week would have given some time to parents too, many of whom have returned from long overseas vacations. Said Dr Khalid Al Hindawi, an educationist: “I was in favour of delaying the school reopening by another week as that would have given the schools more time to take effective measures to prevent a possible spread of the H1N1 virus”.

But Amina Al Jaber, a Qatar University professor, said she did not agree with this view since any further delay in reopening the schools would curtail the academic year and hamper studies.

The schools had already taken effective measures to deal with the situation, so there was no need for keeping them closed to students. Khalifa Al Kuwari said he preferred a further delay as school buildings needed some modifications, especially the doors of the classrooms are too narrow so they should have been widened.

There really is little protection against any flu. The flu shots may help some, Tamiflu may help with the symptoms, but viruses mutate. Anyone who has ever worked in a school knows that colds and flu are just a part of life, and it may be a good thing to help us all gain immunity against more bugs.

What I really don’t understand is the low value placed on education by so many parents in this area. For example, many parents place little value on getting kids into their classes on time. Teachers complain that the kids don’t do their homework, and get little personal attention and encouragement from their parents to complete it, and then the parents come in and yell at the teachers for not teaching when the child gets a low grade because the homework has not been completed.

Children are kept out of school for any excuse, like “I needed her at home to watch the smaller children” or “he didn’t want to come to school.” Few children get enough sleep at night, and are consequently drowsy in the classroom. Last and not least, few of the children are instructed on classroom behavior, and when the teacher tries to instruct – and enforce – mutual respect and polite conduct, once again an angry parent shows up on the doorstep asking how he/she dare to discipline this child?

The teachers here are truly heroes.

October 4, 2009 Posted by | Community, Doha, ExPat Life, Family Issues, Living Conditions, Work Related Issues | 4 Comments

Karabaa in Rubble

It’s even worse. Rubble everywhere. It looks like a war zone.

00Rubble

Ripping out the Heart of Doha . . .

October 2, 2009 Posted by | Building, Bureaucracy, Community, Cultural, Doha, ExPat Life, Living Conditions, Photos, Social Issues | 7 Comments

Apartment With a Gulf View? Not so Fast!

Not so fast! Make sure you know who really owns those flats before you fork out the big bucks! This happens everywhere; people selling or renting property they don’t own, taking deposits, and disappearing!

From today’s Arab Times

Kuwaiti, wife make big money selling ‘sold out’ flats;

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 28: Eight Kuwaitis have filed complaints with the Al-Shaab Police Station accusing a compatriot and his Arab wife of cheating them, reports Al-Rai daily. The complainants said they bought apartments overlooking the sea from the compatriot and the wife received money on behalf of the husband. The complainants said each of them paid KD 100,000 in advance upon receipts and contracts only to discover the apartments have been sold to other people. The daily did not say in which country the complainants purchased the apartments.

September 30, 2009 Posted by | Community, Crime, ExPat Life, Kuwait, Lies, Living Conditions | Leave a comment

Massouma: Kuwait Women Key in Liberation

GREAT article from today’s Arab Times

Kuwaiti women played key role in liberating nation: Maasouma

GENEVA, Sept 29, (KUNA): Member of National Assembly of Kuwait Dr. Masouma AI-Mubarak said that during Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and the Liberation War in 1991 the Kuwaiti women played a major role in liberating their country. Addressing the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) conference in Geneva, she stressed that the Kuwaiti women put up a remarkable resistance against occupation and struggled in every front for the safety of their country.

“It is a fact that no society can prosper when women do not contribute to its progress. It is a fact also, that we hold only a very small percentage of public offices, very few women are involved in politics and even fewer run for elected offices,” Dr. Al-Mubarak said. In her speech, “The Role of Women: Expectations and Challenges,”

Al-Mubarak said that the Kuwait Constitution does not discriminate between women and men with respect to their citizenship rights, but social customs. “Women make up more than 50 percent of the Kuwaiti population. They compose 24.5 percent of the country’s total workforce, and more than 40 percent of the Kuwaiti workforce, and about 70 percent of students at university level. More than 85 percent of the honor graduates are women,” she said. And added that Kuwaiti women hold prominent positions. However, Dr. Al-Mubarak said that one of the first obstacles faced as the first female MP was in running for in-house elections. “Another experience was in the election of the Parliamentarian committee for Women’s Affairs; all four female MPs won, in addition to three male MPs,” she said.

She explained that historically, this committee was not on the radar screen of Parliament “it only succeeeded in becoming so after the granting of women’s political rights in May 2005 where female voters became an attractive asset to those running for elections.

“One of our first decisions upon being elected into the committee was to suggest an amendment to the bylaws of the Parliament to include this committee among the roster of permanent parliamentarian committees thus cementing its importance to the nation,” said Al-Mubarak. Al-Mubarak explained that the committee is currently studying two proposals for social and civil women’s rights, and several proposals to amend discriminatory articles in several laws as: the Public Housing Law, the Civil Service Law, the Passport Law, the Labor Law, the Social Security Law, and the Immigration Law which affects the stability of families comprised of Kuwaiti wives married to non-Kuwaiti husbands.

She added that the committee also succeeded in putting women’s issues on the priority list of the Parliament which is comprised of 23 priorities for the upcoming session starting on October 27, 2009.

“The Five-Year Development Plan of Kuwait has allocated an entire program to support and develop the role of women in society and to incorporate them in the workforce, by training 19,416 women during the current Plan,” said Dr. Al-Mubarak. She stressed that until women are fully represented in local, national and international decision making bodies, their issues will not be priorities and the necessary resources will not be allocated.

September 30, 2009 Posted by | Character, Community, Cultural, Family Issues, Kuwait, Leadership, News, Political Issues, Social Issues, Women's Issues, Work Related Issues | 1 Comment

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa AlSanea

“Have you read Girls of Riyadh?” my friend asked me on the phone, and when I said I had not, she said she would bring it to me.

“It’s an easy read” she said, “it will take you an afternoon.”

Sometimes life intruded. It took me a little longer. I had expected this to be lightweight, along the lines of the shopaholic books, read ’em and forget ’em. Airport reading, stuff you save to read when you know you will have time to kill.

I was surprised. I guess I had gotten the impression it was lightweight because I had seen it discussed on some of the blogs, and there are some light-hearted moments in the book. The four young women are well drawn, and their experiences are handled with sensitivity. She never reveals which character from the book she is, but I have my suspicions. 🙂

Each girl has her own unique experiences as she reaches young womanhood, and mating. Although the experiences are treated deftly, there is a serious undercurrent that belies the light tone. The underlying circumstances surrounding the mating rituals in a country so tradition-bound as Saudi Arabia turn mating into a dark ritual, full of unseen pits and minefields.

The very worst fear during these years is the wagging tongues of others. I have heard this theme over and over in my own dealings with young women in this part of the world.

“You know, khalto, a woman’s reputation is like glass, it is easily shattered,” explained my young-woman Qatteri friend, solemnly.

(for my Western readers, Khalto means ‘aunt’ literally, and is a term used respectfully for family friends, meaning ‘sister of my mother’)

“I don’t want to get married,” she continued, “They come for you as a bride and they are so nice and they make you feel so in love with them, but then, when you are married, they change. Men are . . . men are . . ”

“Dogs?” I asked.

“Yes! Yes!,” she exclaimed, “Dogs!” (pause)

“How did you know, Khalto?”

LLLLOOOOLLLLLLLLLL! It’s one of those moments when you know we are all more alike than we are different.

Girls of Riyadh is a worthy read. It is thought-provoking, and compassion-provoking. You grow to love these girls, and you hope a happy ending for them.

September 28, 2009 Posted by | Beauty, Books, Community, Cross Cultural, Cultural, Doha, ExPat Life, Family Issues, Kuwait, Living Conditions, Marriage, Mating Behavior, Relationships, Saudi Arabia, Social Issues, Women's Issues | 15 Comments

Exporting Trash to Poorer Countries

From The New York Times, where you can read the entire article on exporting trash by clicking here

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: September 26, 2009
ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands — When two inspectors swung open the doors of a battered red shipping container here, they confronted a graveyard of Europe’s electronic waste — old wires, electricity meters, circuit boards — mixed with remnants of cardboard and plastic.

“This is supposed to be going to China, but it isn’t going anywhere,” said Arno Vink, an inspector from the Dutch environment ministry who impounded the container because of Europe’s strict new laws that place restrictions on all types of waste exports, from dirty pipes to broken computers to household trash.

Exporting waste illegally to poor countries has become a vast and growing international business, as companies try to minimize the costs of new environmental laws, like those here, that tax waste or require that it be recycled or otherwise disposed of in an environmentally responsible way.

Rotterdam, the busiest port in Europe, has unwittingly become Europe’s main external garbage chute, a gateway for trash bound for places like China, Indonesia, India and Africa. There, electronic waste and construction debris containing toxic chemicals are often dismantled by children at great cost to their health. Other garbage that is supposed to be recycled according to European law may be simply burned or left to rot, polluting air and water and releasing the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.

While much of the international waste trade is legal, sent to qualified overseas recyclers, a big chunk is not. For a price, underground traders make Europe’s waste disappear overseas.

After Europe first mandated recycling electronics like televisions and computers, two to three tons of electronic waste was turned in last year, far less than the seven tons anticipated. Much of the rest was probably exported illegally, according to the European Environment Agency.

Paper, plastic and metal trash exported from Europe rose tenfold from 1995 to 2007, the agency says, with 20 million containers of waste now shipped each year either legally or illegally. Half of that passes through this huge port, where trucks and ships exchange goods around the clock.

When we were blogging about pirates in Somalia, a Somali wrote in that part of the problem was that rich western countries were dumping toxic trash off the coast of Somalia and damaging the traditional fishing wealth of the country. Once trash is exported, there is no telling where it will be dumped, or what problems we are causing for our descendants down the road. I can’t help but think that we reap what we sow – and that we need to be paying attention to what we are dumping and where we are dumping it.

September 27, 2009 Posted by | Africa, Bureaucracy, Community, Financial Issues, Interconnected, Living Conditions, Political Issues, Social Issues, Values | 3 Comments

Expose Violators to Protect Consumers?

This article is from the Qatar Peninsula but it applies equally in Kuwait, in Seattle, in Pensacola . . . when a restaurant violates a health code, shouldn’t those results be made public? They are serving the public, they take our money, shouldn’t we know the state of hygiene and the safe-practices they observe – or don’t observe?

We still remember a time in Monterey, California when we walked into one of the most popular Chinese restaurants in town and found a table, without having to wait. It was astonishing. There were few customers that night. The next day in the paper we found it had been closed for health-code violations. We took comfort in knowing that when it re-opened, it had to pass a re-check, and it was probably the cleanest it had ever been, or would be for a time to come. 🙂

Restaurateurs want names of eateries violating rules to be made public
Web posted at: 9/27/2009 23:45:38
Source ::: THE PENINSULA
DOHA: The identity of the eateries punished for flouting health and safety rules should be disclosed by the authorities concerned, feel a number of restaurateurs in the city.

Not disclosing the name of an erring eating outlet is unadvisable since it can make all the eateries of a locality suspect in the eyes of patrons, say restaurateurs.

This happens especially as the authorities do mention the area an erring eatery is located in but fight shy of publishing its name in local newspapers.

Al Sharq Arabic newspaper in its weekly online survey took up this issue this time and an overwhelming 94 percent of the respondents said they were in favor of disclosing the identity of an erring eateries.

Only five percent said they did not back the idea, while one percent said they were undecided.

September 27, 2009 Posted by | Bureaucracy, Communication, Community, Doha, Eating Out, ExPat Life, Health Issues, Hygiene, Interconnected, Kuwait, Living Conditions, Qatar, Values | 6 Comments

Kuwait Censors ‘Terror’ Blogs, Websites

Teeny Teeny Tiny Article in today’s Gulf Times:

Kuwait censors ‘terror’blogs, websites: report

Kuwait has blocked a number of Internet blogs and websites with links to “terror” cells and groups, a top official said in comments published yesterday. “The ministry has blocked blogs … used by some to communicate with terror cells and extremist groups,” communications ministry undersecretary Abdulmohsen al-Mazeedi told Kuwait’s An-Nahar newspaper. He said the ministry had also blocked sites deemed offensive to God and the emir and which undermined what he called national unity, in addition to sites promoting pornography. Mazeedi said the ministry was applying the law and “aims to preserve Islamic values.”

More information, from Al Watan:

Kuwait blocks terrorـlinked Web sites
KUWAIT: Kuwait has blocked a number of Internet blogs and Web sites with links to “terror” cells and groups, a top official said in comments published on Friday.

“The ministry has blocked blogs …used by some to communicate with terror cells and extremist groups,”Communications Ministry undersecretary Abdulmohsen AlـMazeedi told Kuwait”s AnـNahar newspaper.

He said the ministry has also blocked “sites deemed offensive to Almighty God and to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlـAhmad AlـSabah and which undermined national unity,” in addition to sites promoting pornography. Mazeedi said the ministry was applying the law and “aims to preserve Islamic values.” However before blocking any site, the ministry takes permission from the Public Prosecution.
A number of MPs have described the ministry”s monitoring of blogs as a breach of the Constitution and threatened to question the communications minister in Parliament.

Last year, the Public Prosecution questioned Mohammed Abdulqader AlـJassem for writing an article on his Web site that was deemed offensive to the country”s crown prince.

In 2007, blogger and journalist Bashar AlـSayegh was detained for two days after comments deemed offensive to the Gulf state”s ruler were posted on his Web site.

The man, who posted the comments, a Kuwaiti citizen, was jailed for two years.ـAFP

Last updated on Saturday 26/9/2009

September 26, 2009 Posted by | Blogging, Bureaucracy, Character, Community, ExPat Life, Kuwait, Living Conditions, Social Issues | 3 Comments

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